coop

climbed first time in nearly two weeks. couple of new things to throw myself at. felt mixed, couldn't get off first wall on grey holds traverse but could get rail prob.

Findaloo

Got down for lamp session with bray, very cold, cycled in, dark at 5. After disconcerting warm up got stuck into pascals. Still a long way to go. Right hand up is snatchy and the hold is sharp. Put left foot out further at start, better balance when needed later on. After many failures bray mentioned the fin which i agreed to against my better judgement. After several gos decided right foot needs to pop off, forget about trying to keep it on altogether. After a lot of frustration i removed the tape on my threee crucial fingers and managed to hold it. Fought the top out probably as hard as i've ever fought a problem after my foot slipped at same point as in last lamp session. This time i regrouped somewhat with foot back on crimp, my stomach cramping and managed to top it out. Took a while to get breath back. 8b.

Tried 7b slab, little tiny edge in middle of small base slab, left foot on gets right foot awkwardly to edge on pseudo arete. Don't know if i could move out of that position.

superstar

After an evening of over eating and drinking by rights i should have been a basket case today. However under the guise of going for a walk with Orla I managed to get to the boulders while she spinked. Minto at the late starting time of 2. After a quick lovely warm up and with some reservations i turned to bmx and promptly flashed it, even finishing with the left hand. Psyched I went down to egg ss, tried it a couple of times from standing, then linked it in from the ss, absolutely grovelling the finish. First time ever, chuffed. Realising i had caught Someone off guard here I headed for Pascal's where the run of top outs stopped dead. However I did after some false starts work out an approach that gets me to the triangle. Instead of locking into the high right elbow and crossing through, keep right foot below the good foot hold, left foot flagging out left and left hand in high side pull and go again with right hand for the left most end of the ramp. Hit it but did not hold, it'll go with better skin and some work. Real pleased.

Must do something about how often skin seems to be the deciding factor in finishing stuff.

Woman on her own asked if I'd like a bunt at pascals, i struggled to say something and came out with "maybe later". fortunately she had already passed so i didn't see her face. i should give ped lessons.

Swing and a miss.

Hannah's better than tim.

Arose early and found my new place affords me zero view of the hills and the current weather on 3 rock. Took off for Lough Bray and drove into the rain, wet, cold and windy. Satisfied with my karma building efforts i headed for the coop where Bray was joining me. I took the back roads via Rathfarnam and realised again i'm mostly a stranger to my home town. Coop session was good, Big Mac turned up and gloated up things. Felt better on the arete prob but the final swing seems next generational to me. Got the rail problem again. Need more projects.

Also cooped mid week.

Altar Ego

Headed down to cloghogue for what felt like a stolen session for some reason. Pretty shit conditions, mild and occasionally sunny with little wind and the ground was often glenmac boggy. Pottered on stuff, want to try steep sit start to the arete (between slopey arete starting boulder and the river). Some lovely fine grained granite in places. Finished ourselves on the campus problem. Davo was moving through the starting holds and touching the top. I can't hold the starting position but could do slight jump start and then hold the top from there. Strange pain in the shin bones of my arms when i boned the crimps too much. Top out looks nasty. Enjoyed short steep problem on the back of this boulder also. Good day out.

IBL was on today in DCU, i was close to going but weather saved my soul.

media matters

Font

Font started and ended with stressful journeys, but i enjoyed touching on 160 kph in our hugely upgraded car when we finally broke free of Paris' treacle like traffic. The mobile home was very modren but 6 of us in that small living space for 4 days was perhaps the limit of what i could have handled. Drank too much the second night, a schoolgirl error, still think it was probably worth it.

The climbing was good as ever though i found very few of the problems i worked really stoked my psych. The harder problems tend to be crimpy on marble which is not what font is about for me. I need to be better prepared next time with an idea of the problems i'd like to try. Tried all the Roches usuals and was pretty uninspired. Remparts offered some lovely pure lines but spotted nothing to work. Second day Gorges au chats seemed to have some great problems but was hungover. Elephant also looked great at times but highball and i was totally underwhelmed by the lines inspiring others. Wet third day. On the last day in Apremont found a lovely problem (bleau.info call it 7a) which embodied all the tricksy wonder of font slopers, Ciel something. Also tried another starred prob, egoiste which i felt ultimately quite comfortable on but didn't feel compelled to finish. I was afterwards somewhat envious of the blue team on their ragtaggle route through the circuit. On reflection I don't think i was grade whoring, or certainly not as much as when i had never got a 7a, I just like to be consumed by a problem. Had usual grade sandbagging debate with fairy godmother sparkle and tim and found it exhausting. I think it would be interesting to have a bleau.info style grading system on the shortspan for any problems people care to submit. I think the most we can hope for is internal consistency. Actually yearned a bit for glendo while away which is a little fucked. My skin was thin after last glendo outing which was also schoolgirl.

Smacks was staying a nice gite worth remembering for next time. Longer trip would be highly preferable. Neil did a good deal on the pads and is "always" full so if we wanted to stay there we'd need to book early. always ask for an upgrade.

Starring topcunt, sparkle, the tour nurse, our tour bus driver, varicose, yopolio and a guest appearance by shitblock, bless her shitty cotton socks.